I guess that really depends on the time of year and where you are commuting from. I call MEM home and the commute to MSP wasn't bad at all in my opinion. I've had MUCH worse i'll leave it at that.
Now I am based at home so don't worry about the commute, but the lines this month have been Really nice in MEM. However, next month they look pretty bad. They are all 11-12 days off. I think this is due to the short staffing issues they have been having this month though.

Another thought I had is that they are just rotating the good schedules every month to another domicile....but thats just my conspiracy theory at work ....The schedules have been changing dramatically from month to month on every domicile so it is hard to say...one month GREAT...next month not so much (shrug).

We do have a higher commuting prority on DAL than we use to as well...don't know how much it helps though. We have a lower prority on NWA now too though...we list as a 5W now on NWA.

Hope some of that rambling helps you guys.

 

I don't have any info on the exercising of options....wouldn't believe anyone else claiming to have it either.

About schedules, check the above post...It really is changing quite a bit right now so its hard to say.

We can trip trade but I haven't found anything about being able to drop a trip. I have heard some guys that dropped a bad 4 day for a better 3 day. It seems they are willing to let you trade with open time as long as you are trading to a trip with equal or greater flight time. We are understaffed right now so dropping would be out of the question anyway I think.

 

Why are you understaffed? Are people leaving or did the aircraft deliveries occur faster than expected?

Thanks again for your responses.

 

One last question, where do you guys currently fly or intend on flying to in Mexico?

 

LIOG41--

The understaffing issue is due to a number of captain OE washouts as well as a few FOs that've had training issues the last few months, coupled with no-shows to newhire classes.

We fly Detroit - Monterey NL at present, only mexico route.

 

without starting any debate, but are these training issues mainly with lower time guys? or is this across the map?

 

You've got an MD 11 type, this thing is cake.

 

The Bus was, so I would hope so, but a Check Airman with a chip on his shoulder, or overly anal requirements would make any level of experience struggle to get thru (if you know what I mean).

ACA back in the day, before they were called Independence had a 70%+ bust rate on the CRJ and I think some of those check airman are at Compass today, no?

 

I was in one of the first few classes at Compass and I know almost all of the check airman and sim instructers/APDs. Very few of them are ex ACA/Indy. In fact I only know of two.(correct me if I am wrong) Most of them came from Mesaba, Comair, TWA/AA, Sun Country etc. Three of them are flowbacks from NWA. Almost all of them are very fair and easy going. The training problems we have been having involve mostly lower time pilots and/or pilots with little or no glass/ FMS exp. Our training program was one of the most pleasant exps I have ever had in the 121 world. I came from an MD-80 operator and the transition to the E-175 was pretty painless. It's a great airplane that is good to fly and I haven't found any bad habits in it yet.
We can really use people with exp to come here. We are hurting for pilots. Last week I was in recurrent ground school and they only had two people out of a possible six show up for new hire class. It's getting really hard to find people since the merger anouncement is what the company told us. We have a fairly exp pilot group/training dept. Average time in my new hire class was 7-8k hours. We only have six Fo's that were hired by mistake with less than 1,500 hours total time. We have resolved this with the company and everyone else since and before has had 1,500 or greater. They were all over 1,000 hours but not quite to 1,500. They all made it through training and will be given ATP Capt types once they have the required time. If you live in MEM DTW or even MSP it is a great place to work. PM me if you have any other questions.

GaC

 

Hi GaC, your PM isn't up yet due to post count (you've got to have 15 I think), but thanks for the inside scoop.. I know of the group I interviewed with, except for a couple of them, experience may have been on the too much side if anything with one guy being a 23 year ATA captain.. Not saying he didn't have other job/options out there to take, but they're showing up to your interview.. I'm not a heavy weight like that, but i've got 5K TT 1800 PIC Jet/ATR and 5 type ratings (all but one in Glass/FMS).. so I think I could make it thru, but the way I'm reading the seniority list and the demographics of it, is that the guys hired now would likely be FOs for a good bit of time (even if they're qualified to upgrade) due to the fact that they're limited to 360 pilots and have already hired 250... it's going to be a hard sell to get guys who can't afford $22/hr for long to take a job with upgrades not in sight.. I know I'm torn over it if offered the job.

Is there a minimum experience required for upgrade, or are the 3 hired below 1500TT eligible to upgrade in seniority?